At long last, the forum or me isn't timing out and I can finally post this (it got a lot shorter every time I had to write it again, hopefully more concise too):
I just picked this game up (yeah, a little late) from Steam. Anything I should know? Guess I should practice some maps with bots or something to get an idea of what I'm doing. And figure out where all the stuff is. I'll be steamrolled enough the way it is for being a new player in a game this old.
Having crazy performance problems with 26 or 28 bots shooting at each other, which is concerning. My machine is no beast, but I expected to easily run this on mid-low settings. It defaulted to all "High" as recommended for my machine, but putting everything on ultra-low makes no difference. Any-who, once I figure that out, I'll give this a shot with Real PeopleTM.
Oh, and I do like bigger fights. The more people, the more fun for me. What's the average number of players in each match?
I kind of want to go engineer, too. That a bad choice?
Yeah, don't worry about the bot performance, a serverful of simulated eyesight, virtual mousepads and complex AI brings any computer to it's proverbial knees.
Learning the maps is really important at start. Pay close attention to sideroutes and the placement of ammo and health packs. With the thirtysomething official maps we have now, learning all of them seems like a pretty daunting task, but after figuring out the most played ones (2fort, dustbowl, badwater, gravelpit, goldrush and granary) it becomes easier. You might want to try a server that has one of those going 24/7 as playing the game is more fun when you know where everything is.
The average player count is 24 and I think that's the amount the game is balanced for. The 32 player servers seem a bit crowded on some maps, but that can be fun too.
The engineer isn't the first class you want to play on a new map as it relies so much on knowing where your buildings are effective. I suggest playing a couple rounds on other classes to figure out where the ammo and frontlines are. Also, watching other engis and seeing where they place their stuff helps of course. The engi update will be interesting for you as it will give you definite goals in the form of achievements and make alternative playstyles easier through the new unlocks.
Welcome to the world of TF2! Hope you have loads of fun. I kind of wish I could start fresh and learn everything about the game again, but amazingly enough, after 1½ years of playing, there's still a lot of new things coming to achieve and adapt to.